Had it not been for this class I probably wouldn't have happened upon "How do I love thee?" Such a timeless piece it's almost criminal that I hadn't thought about it and often. I remember when I first read it (I fashioned myself to be a poet when I was younger), I thought it was the most beautiful piece I had ever read. It had more meaning after I had learned what she had endured in life, it sort of plays into whether you read poetry as fiction or non, I definitely read it as non-fiction since I know this was written during her and her future husband's courtship. You could actually "feel" the affection and fondness woven into the words from every line. I could imagine her sitting down and musing about her immeasurable love and the ending....."and if God choose, I shall but love thee after death." It gets no better than that!
Cindy Davis
Cindy,I completely understand where you're coming from!, This is a lovely poem, one that I've encountered many times but I've never been able to remember the name of the author! The first line stuck in my head and I misremembered it as a Shakespearean poem, haha!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I can properly connect poem to author now.
Even though it's not a Shakespearean poem, I put it in the same class of romantic poems as Shakespeare's 'Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day'
You know, I'm not sure whether I categorized it as fiction or non-fiction. I just saw a romantic poem, it made me smile. To me, rather than narrating a story it's expressing an emotion. Does it matter whether it's real or not?
~Nitesh Arora